SPQR
SPQR is the abbreviation of Senatus Populusque Romanus, “the Senate and the Roman people”, the formula Latin inscriptions used for the Roman people as a state. It is still on the coat of arms of the city of Rome.
Meaning
The Treccani encyclopedia calls S.P.Q.R. a frequent abbreviation in Latin inscriptions for the Roman people, used in full or abbreviated on monumental inscriptions. The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, completed after the emperor’s death in 81 CE, opens its dedication with the words in full: SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS, “the Senate and the People of Rome” to the deified Titus. The city of Rome uses the letters today: its statute describes the emblem of Roma Capitale as a pointed purple shield with a gold Greek cross in the upper corner, followed by the gold capitals S. P. Q. R. set diagonally, under a crown of eight gold fleurons, five of them visible.
Origin and history
Augustus’s own honours carried the formula. In the account of his reign he set up, he records a golden shield placed in the Curia Julia whose inscription said that the senate and the Roman people gave it to him for his valour, clemency, justice and piety. The Loeb editors note an inscription that repeats it, with two Victories holding the shield (CIL IX 5811).
The letters outlived the empire. Treccani says the abbreviation came back into favour in the Middle Ages, in the twelfth century, and appears on the coins of the Roman senate of that time; its dictionary entry ties the revival to a reawakened sense of Rome’s past, and adds that the letters now appear on the city’s coat of arms.
What does SPQR mean?
SPQR means Senatus Populusque Romanus, “the Senate and the Roman people”, the reading the Romans themselves gave it. The Treccani encyclopedia adds that this may not have been its first meaning: the letters were perhaps at first equivalent to Senatus Populus Quirites Romani, and were later understood, still in Roman times, as Senatus Populusque Romanus.
Where you’ll see it
In Rome the letters are on the Arch of Titus and other monumental inscriptions, and on the coins of the medieval senate, which Treccani describes. They are on the city’s emblem, as its statute of 2013 sets out, a purple shield with the letters in gold. The Roman army’s standards were the eagle and the Vexillum, and Smith’s account of them does not mention the letters.
Read next
- Next in Historical flagsDraco standardThe draco was a dragon standard: a dragon’s head on a pole, with a body of cloth that filled with wind and hissed as the riders moved. Arrian called it Scythian; by the later Roman empire each cohort and the emperor himself rode behind dragons.
- The same shape in Chinese radicalsKǒu 口The character for ‘mouth’ and ‘opening’, and radical 30 of the 214 Kangxi radicals, under which characters for eating, calling out and other uses of the mouth are filed.
See also
Aquila, Jolly Roger, Blackbeard’s flag, Calico Jack’s flag, Bartholomew Roberts’s flag, Emanuel Wynne’s flag.
Sources
- S.p.q.r. (Enciclopedia Treccani), Enciclopedia on line, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana (Treccani)
- S.P.Q.R. (Vocabolario Treccani), Vocabolario on line, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana (Treccani)
- Arch of Titus, Roman Forum (81–82 CE), Judaism and Rome database, record 58, Judaism and Rome (CNRS, Heurist), Original inscription
- Statuto di Roma Capitale, Approved by the Assemblea Capitolina, deliberation no. 8 of 7 March 2013, Roma Capitale, Art. 1, para. 6
- Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Loeb translation), part 6, Augustus, Res Gestae, translated by Frederick W. Shipley (Loeb Classical Library, 1924), LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago), ch. 34 and note
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
Added .